Wisconsin saw the nation's largest protest so far against top-down stay-at-home orders as thousands descended on the nation's capitol in Madison.
Cars could be seen stretching for miles, and protesters held signs and honked horns to make their voices heard.
“We need to open up Wisconsin, get businesses back to work, because I think that the fact that nobody's working is going to be far more detrimental to our economy and our families and America in general, than the disease will ever be,” Jeff Schmiedel, of Neenah, Wis., told NBC News.
“We were supposed to end, originally, on April 24 which was today, and now it's another month,” Schmiedel, who works in real estate, added. “I just don't think our country can survive another month with people staying at home.”
Julie Jardin, a hairdresser from Green Bay, Wis., was close to tears as she described to NBC the hardship she’s faced because of the pandemic.
“I have no income coming in none whatsoever. I had to close my doors, I still have my rent to pay my utilities everything. And we rely on my income at home,” she said.
Jardin said the $1,200 check she received as part of the federal government's massive stimulus package “really helped” her family, but would not be enough to sustain them until May 26.
“My clients are my livelihood,” she said. “That's how I feed my family, how my family survives is by my job.”
The protest in Madison also contradicted the talking point previously promoted by the mainstream media that the anti-quarantine rallies are centrally organized.
Even according to NBC, the rally was organized by a "tapestry of online groups," which is just another way of saying "the American grassroots."
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